Let There Be Light!
by mooshymoomoo
Summary: The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River meet a very strange girl with a very strange problem.  Rated T for mild language. It's amazing how easily offended some people are!
1. Right Then!

Let There Be Light

Ch 1: Right Then!

"Okay! So, next on our agenda iiiiiiiiis... Ah! Where ever we are!"

"Doctor. That makes no sense."

"Oh, shut it Rory! He's the Doctor, he's a time lord, he doesn't have to make sense! You know he always ends up where he needs to be, even if it isn't where he planned to go." Complained Amy.

"Oh yeah. Of course. How ever could I have forgotten, what with all the time traveling I've taken up recently!" Rory retorted sarcastically.

"Will you two stop going at it like an old married couple?" Exclaimed the Doctor, while fidgeting with his sonic screwdriver. Amy and Rory shot him a glare simultaneously.

"Ah, that's right. I forgot. You are." He said, bringing himself into an awkward silence. "Right then! River, are you coming?"

"Go ahead sweetie. I'm a big girl, I think I can catch up." She hollered from an unseen corridor.

"Wait a minute Doctor, what year are we in?" Amy asked, gesturing to her outfit.

"I have no idea!" He exclaimed with a smile and a laugh. Realizing that this wasn't the answer she wanted, he revised. "A rough guess is around... 2011 maybe? From the looks of it you should be fine in that." Looking around the TARDIS to check that everything was in proper order, he spoke. "Right then! Let's find out what dying species or whatnot we'll be saving today!" He walked around the console, down some stairs, and towards the door.

"Ready when you are." Amy and Rory stepped up behind him. "Right then. Let's go." He pulled open the door and stepped out into the light.


	2. A Short Trip

Ch 2: A Short Trip

"Doctor, where the hell are we?" Rory asked.

"Yeah..." Amy agreed, surveying their surroundings. The TARDIS had landed in a clearing in a small forest. She could tell it was autumn, because the trees were bare and the air had that certain crispness to it. The Doctor turned on his heel to face them.

"Once again, no clue. But when we were in the TARDIS it was reportedly inhabited by humanoid beings. Presuming they aren't violent or hostile, I expect we'll find out soon enough. So! Each of you choose a direction, and walk." Amy turned in agreement, while Rory furrowed his brow with hesitation. But, seeing no other option, he too turned and went forth into the brush. The Doctor straightened up his bowtie and went slightly to the right.

Hands in her pockets, Amy strolled through the branches and leaves at a leisurely pace. Although the sky was grey and cloudy, it had a strange sort of beauty to it. She gazed up and let her mind wander; she never really had any time to just walk on a normal planet.

It could have been a few hours; it could have been a few minutes. In her experience with the doctor, it was usually the former. Either way, it was inevitable that without watching where she was going, at some point she'll trip on a tree root. And, as inevitably as the inevitable, she did. She also happened to still have her hands in her pockets.

Amy went down hard and without warning. To her surprise, there was a small shriek of alarm. To her astonishment, it hadn't come from her. It couldn't have come from her; the trip down had landed her with a mouthful of dirt. So after spitting it out and checking for fractures, she sat up and brushed herself off.

What she saw was strange. And she had run off with a time traveler in the middle of the night before her wedding, so that's saying something. That is to say, what she saw wasn't wholly remarkable in itself. What was off about it was the sheer normalcy of it. 'It' was a young girl sitting by herself on tree stump.

"Are you all right?" The lonely girl said.

"Erm... Yeah. Yes, I'm fine. Did I scare you?" She responded in confusion, wincing as she brushed some pebbles out of a scratch.

"Well evidently, yes. Just a bit." She murmured.

"Um... What are you doing out here?" Amy asked with a twinge of concern in her voice.

"Well that depends on who's asking."

"As in?"

"You aren't going to kidnap me are you?" Amy looked at her puzzled, noting the girl's strange accent.

"Not likely... Forgive me if this is ignorant, but what planet are we on?"

"Earth..." She replied cautiously, clearly regarding Amy as a possible psycho.

"Well that is a relief. What country is this?"

"America... New England, to be specifically vague." She said, with all looks of nervousness and doubt leaving her face. Something about the way she talked reminded Amy of the Doctor somehow.

"Do you need help getting up?" She asked, making Amy realize that she was still sprawled on the ground. Snapping back into the moment, she attempted to rise to her feet. Upon putting pressure on her right foot, she gasped with pain and collapsed.

"I think that'd be good." The girl took off the strap of the bag she was carrying and tried to move it onto another stump, but it snagged on a rogue tree branch and ripped open; spilling the contents onto the forest floor.

"Crap!" She exclaimed with extreme annoyance. "That was my favorite bag! Whatever, I'll patch it up later. Here, let me give you a hand." Amy took her hand and lurched onto the stump that the girl had formerly been sitting on. The girl began to gather up her bag from the leaves when a small blue notebook fell out. Amy recognized it right away, her eyes growing wide with curiosity.

"Doctor! I think you should see this!" She shouted. She was reassured by the sound of leaves crunching and branches breaking. But the lonely girl looked confused again. Amy sighed and thought, 'One thing at a time.'


	3. Hello There

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for such a long wait! I've been mega busy with school, but I have the actual chapters written. I have a few days off this week, so I'll try and type as fast as my fingers will go!**

Ch 3: Hello There!

With the Doctor still a ways off, Amy decided to figure out what was going on. The girl had gone from cautious, to relaxed, to straight up terrified.

"What's wrong?"

"Who's the Doctor? Do you have a medical condition I should be aware of?"

"No, not at all. He's just a friend. That's just his nickname..." Amy attempted, but the girl didn't look very convinced.

"What's your name? I'm Amy."

"Who... is... the Doctor? Answer the question." She said, growing increasingly distraught with each passing minute.

"I already told you. He is a friend that I travel with. Now, I need to know your name."

"It's Parker." Suddenly, there was a mumbling and fussing about in the brush. A few twigs snapped, leaves crunched, and the Doctor came into the clearing. The girl's eyes went wide with apprehension.

"Ah! Hello there! I'm the Doctor!" He turned to Amy. "And this is?"

"Parker. Her name's Parker. Parker, will you take out your little book and show it to the Doctor for me?"

"No. I won't." She said. Her upper lip began trembling. "This can't be happening..." She said in a breaking undertone, her voice trailing off in thought. Her head snapped towards the Doctor. "You can't see it. You aren't real, you can't see it, I'm not showing you. Not unless she... No." She turned and attempted to tie her fraying bag back together. The Doctor looked to Amy hopefully. After a brief exchange of "You do it!" "No you do it!" looks, Amy spoke again.

"Parker, what do you mean he isn't real? What's in that book that he can't see?"

"It's my dream journal," She said while closing her eyes in aggravation and slowly turning to point at the Doctor. "And him. He's in almost all of my dreams. With a big blue box." She once more buried her face in her hands and looked up at Amy through watering, scared eyes. "Do you ever have dreams that _you_ aren't in?" She sighed into her palms and collapsed onto a tree trunk, sprawled on her back. Her green eyes drifted towards to dull, cloudy sky as she absent-mindedly pondered, "Why must it always be me?" Rolling onto her stomach, she got a full view of the clearing that the TARDIS was currently parked in. "And there it is."

"Well, I suppose Rory has gotten lost by now. Doctor, you're a big boy. You can handle this a moment can't you?" Amy stated more than asked as she hobbled off through the bare foliage. Sensing that there was something better to do than just sit there staring at a dead tree, the Doctor made his way over to Parker and sat down next to her, her eyes shut.

"Hello there!" He tried optimistically.

"Not a chance."

"All right, new approach then..." He said. Why must humans be so complicated?

Both were lost in thought for a moment when a muffled clatter came from the sealed TARDIS. Then, the WOOSH of the door opening. Grateful for the distraction, they both turned to see what was happening.

"Hello Sweetie."


	4. Quite the Tangled Web

**I'm sorry guys! It's not like I even have a social life to use as an excuse! It's just sheer laziness!**

Chapter 4: A Tangled Web

Parker's head shot up as River stepped out of the TARDIS, if not a bit extravagantly. She had on a new pair of boots was strutting a little. She arched her brow at the site of the Doctor sitting with a teen.

The girl in question looked to be about 14, with knee length, ash blonde hair and large, intriguing, grey eyes. She had a slightly sad demeanor that added to her strange beauty. The girl began to speak.

"Oh my God." Parker said, directly facing River. Now River became confused. She gave the Doctor a look that asked him to explain.

"Right... Well... Parker, this is-"

"River. River Song." Parker blurted, cutting the Doctor off. Both River and the Time Lord gasped and exchanged a scared look. The strange part was, the girl looked equally scared.

"How on earth... Have we met?"

"No..." She murmured as she reached into her torn bag. From the scraps of material, she extracted a small, blue, leather notebook. The binding was worn, a few pages were falling out and fluttering precariously on the edge like leaves. River froze. Her hand, shaking slightly, went to her own pocket. She pulled out an identical notebook, although slightly more worn.

The Doctor seemed scared, nervous, and excited at the same time. Why that man loved trouble so much, River would never understand. But what she did understand- well, didn't really- was that whatever was happening was going to be big.

"Parker, what were you saying before? About me not being real?" The Doctor queried.

"I have vivid dreams. And I've always considered them just that. Dreams. Continuing, forming an odd and slightly alarming story, but dreams nonetheless. Yet considering the circumstances, my worst nightmares may be coming true. Literally." Parker said tearfully.

"Well that's problematic." River concluded. "To say the least."

"Right... Back to not being real. Have you seen me... us before? You said you've seen my box?"

"It's in my notebook. Everything." The Doctor reached toward River to retrieve it, when Parker sprang up and snapped it out of his hands. "No. Only she can read it. Spoilers."

"Oh I am _loving_ this. Ginger stumbles upon you, leads you to man with box. Woman steps out of box with your notebook, but you still have yours. And none of us are real."

"Okay, can we focus more on the notebook? Where-

"And when. That's always important too, in cases of wibbly wobblyness like such." The Doctor added.

"AS I WAS SAYING where... ugh... where _and_ whendid you get this journal, Parker? I need you to tell me the truth. This is serious." River pleaded, albeit a tad annoyed. Parker just sat there, staring at the pair of journals that had been flung into the leaves in front of her. She seemed intensely focused, as if trying to remember something long forgotten.

"I just... found it one day. I always take walks out here. It was just sitting there. It was brand new then.

"Yes, but where did you find it?" River pleaded.

"Or did it find you?" The Doctor smirked.

"Doctor, I would appreciate it if you would just let off until I figure out the basics of our situation... or something! I don't know! Just shut your bloody mouth for 2 minutes! That's all I ask." River raged. The Doctor had a smug look. "I hate you sometimes."

"I know. Now then." He said, gesturing toward Parker.

"It was when I was 4 years old. I was taking a walk and it was lying over there. Exactly where the TARDIS is." She pointed.

"Good memory for what, about 10 years ago? Yeah?" Amy complimented, clearly missing something.

"Hang on, you know what my blue box is called? Oh I am LOVING this. Okay. So. If I can't read your journal, would you tell me what else you know?"

"Like I said. Everything. That you're a Time Lord. That you're the man with eleven faces. I've seen them. All of the monsters you've defeated. The robots, aliens, the time vortex. I know of all of your 'companions'." The blank faced girl whispered. "So many. So many friends who have had to stay behind, yet you continue. Tell me Doctor, Time Lord from Gallifrey. Tell me. As a man who has saved so many, loved so many, had so many alliances, and known by so many. Tell me, to a person who has so few friends, how can you let them just walk away? You've taken them to end of the universe, and yet they all must go at some point. You have two hearts. Does it not hurt double when you see them go?"

Parker remained blank. She stared off into the distance while the rest of the group just stood there, mouths agape and jaws on the ground. The Doctor spoke.

"Bollocks."


	5. Falling

Okay, I know that it's short, but I decided to write it at 2 A.M. because I had some words in my head that sounded snazzy together. So yeah. Don't worry, I think I'll have the next chapter up in like an hour.

So, without further ado... **MY NAME IS ADO!**

Here's Chapter 5 of Let There Be light!

"Oh boy..." Amy groaned. The look of concern they were all sharing increased a great deal.  
>"That's a problem..." Rory added. "How is that even possible?"<br>"Yeah... I'm... I'm going to have to get back to you on that one." The Doctor finished. For once, River had no opinion to insert. Her jaw had returned to its original position, but her gaze had drifted. Her eyes had gone from lively and teeming with curiosity to shuttered, shadowed, and fearful. The twin diaries dropped out of her hands. They landed with a crunch in the dry leaves. Simultaneously, the woman's knees buckled. She fell faster than the blue books now.  
>The time lord dove to catch her and prevent her hitting the ground. Her eyelids fluttered and shut as she went limp.<br>"Ah... Not good! Not good!" He exclaimed upon receiving River's full weight. "Pond, you deal with Parker. The diaries can't possibly be the only things wrong here... We didn't just randomly land here, I got a telepathic message."  
>"What did it say?" Questioned the ginger.<br>"Let there be light."


	6. Bumps and Creaks

Alright, I lied. It was more than an hour. But at least I'm being more frequent... I promise this will be longer!

River was aware of two things; the pounding in her head and the voices around her. It felt as if she had fallen and hit her head. As for the voices... _Let's see, where am I? That might help. _Her eyelids slowly parted, but upon meeting bright sun, shut immediately. Her head was really throbbing. _What happ- Oh... _It all came flooding back.

She had fainted at what Parker had said. That's right, she knew everything about the Doctor. Okay, she's with The Doctor and Amy and Rory. But her last memory was of The Doctor catching her... _So why the hell do I have a bloody lump on the back of my head? _She thought further. Blurred images of a house crossed her mind. She remembered being moved... More fuzzy voices... being set down on some sort of sofa... And... Ah. She had a faint recollection of her head hitting a wall, then Rory's muddled "Sorry!" _before_ being put down.

"Oh... She's waking up!" River heard Amy say from across the room. She heard footsteps approaching and felt Amy sit next to her. "River?" Amy asked, coaxing her fully awake. As River fully opened her eyes, squinting in the bright sunlight, her hand went straight to the back of her head. There was quite a sizable lump.

"Hey." Amy said softly.

"Hey." River had replied, smirking and laughing silently at the repetition. "Where's the Doctor?"

"He's in the kitchen with Parker. We may be in America, but luckily her grandmum is British. So she has an entire cabinet full of tea and biscuits, but I expect that's not all he's doing..."

"That man."

"Yes, always an alterior motive." Added Rory. Amy looked slightly nervous. Her hands were balled up inside her sweatshirt sleeves. She walked hesitantly toward the sofa River was still sitting on.

"Okay, can we talk before they come back? I can't be the only one finding this strange." Amy whispered.

"Um, yeah I'm a bit weirded out." Said Rory.

"Oh, believe me, I'm terrified." River said winning puzzled looks from her parents. "And you know what I've been through, so you know this is serious." She added.

"You don't exactly seem terrified..."

"Well that helps when you're in a situation where everyone in the room might die if you can't successfully carry out a negotiation."

"Alright..." Mumbled Rory. None of them knew quite what to make of the situation. The room was flooded with a haze of awkward. Luckily, that's the Doctor's specialty. He came sauntering back in, clutching a package of Jammie Dodgers like it was his prized possession.

"You know, I've decided I like it here. Jammie Dodgers in a random house we found in America. And she even says she has a fez!" The Doctor said. Parker had followed him in, holding a tray with four teacups and some Cherry Bakewell tarts. She set it down on a table in the center of the room. She seemed shy now, as if she were slightly embarrassed by something.

"I can go get the fez, it's in my room." She said. The Doctor's face lit up. She continued, "But I would like River to come with me."

"What? Why?" River's brow furrowed. Nothing about this girl added up.

"I... I have my reasons. And you're still the only person I really trust right now."

"Well... Alright then." She said, rising from the sofa and following Parker to the stairs.

Parker's room was on the top and third floor of the house, across from a guest bedroom and a bathroom. She stopped short of her doorway and sat on a bench in the hall. River opened her mouth to speak, but Parker silenced her with one finger in the air.

"Before we go in, let your eyes wander. Tell me anything you notice out of the ordinary. Anything you see, hear, or even feel." Parker instructed. River turned in the hallway, trying to find something out of the ordinary. She gazed around, staring at the doorknobs and the ceiling. Then she realized- she heard nothing. As they were coming up the stairs, she could clearly hear her parents and husband having their tea and discussing in loud whispers. She supposed they could have just quieted down, but she rethought and decided they were more likely to die before being completely quiet. And it wasn't just no added noise. It was an absence of sound altogether. No birds outside, no pipes creaking, not even the passing traffic.

"Silence."

"So it's not just me." Parker validated. She allowed River to continue her observations.

When Parker had mentioned feeling something, River had questioned why. Now she understood. There was an utter stillness, like the area hadn't been disturbed in years. And yet, it also felt as if the part of the hallway closer to the bedroom door was crowded with people. River could feel a sort of... energy. She looked at this odd girl, who knew so much about her and the Doctor. She felt almost as if she were Alice, just arriving in Wonderland. It kept all of her will- and that is a great one- to not say, "Curiouser and curiouser..."

River couldn't find anything else out of the ordinary. All she knew was that she felt compelled to enter the room lying before her, almost as if something were pulling her towards it. She never could manage to ignore a shut door, especially one as mysterious as this. Parker rose, and took a few deep breaths. Her face gave the impression that she was scared of her own bedroom. Five slow, nervous steps later and she was at the door. She reached for the knob and opened it.

The door did not open silently, as River had expected. Despite its appearance and the fact that the rest of the house was spotless and kept in perfect condition; every inch dusted and every crack patched up, the handle stuck and made a noise as if it were rusted shut when she turned it. The hinges creaked loudly, echoing through the vast expanses of the hallway and guest bedroom. Clearly they needed to be loosened up and oiled. The two of them stepped inside, Parker shutting the door cautiously behind her.

_That room. That bloody room. And the girl. One thing after another, so odd and cryptic. Something is wrong here, very wrong. _River later thought when she had returned downstairs to talk with the others.

There are many reasons to be afraid of the dark.


	7. Tell Me A Story

"It's two whole feet lower." Parker explained to River, who had not actually asked about but had just stared confusedly and pointed questioningly at the ceiling. She had noticed that it was in fact much lower than the cavernous ceiling in the hallway and other room. Aside from that, this room reminded her vaguely of her best childhood friend and mother's room. It was full of drawings and models of the TARDIS, Daleks, Weeping Angels, Cybermen, Sontarans, Silurians, the Doctor himself, and so many other creatures and people even she could not recognize. The room was very dark, and River kept hearing faint whispers coming from nowhere. There was an absurd amount of clocks as well; analog and digital, at least one on every possible surface. And it was a large room. The styles of the clocks varied from old windup alarm clocks to small promotional desktop versions brandished with brand names, and a even a few sleek modern ones.

None of them read the same time. River checked against her own watch, and not a single clock matched it. She looked again to make sure, and to her dismay her watch now read seven minutes later, when it had surely been less than one minute.

Another contributing factor to this tomb of oddities was the lighting. There were several lamps; five dispersed among dresser and desk, one installed overhead with a built in fan, and several strands of Christmas lights woven into a canopy above her bed. They were all turned on and seemed to emit sufficient light, definitely enough to make the room very bright.

Yet it was still quite dark. Each corner of the room was dim, and shadows were cast oddly onto each wall. River took everything in, eyes growing wide with alarm. There wasn't much else in the room, other than the normal things for a girl to have such as a few books and clothes. It was mainly dominated by the clocks and drawings. On Parker's desk sat a large, red fez. Besides that the desk was sparsely embellished; there was a magazine, some pencils, and a few small framed photos. River leaned over to look closer. They were of much younger Parkers with her parents, all varying ages. One was of her at scarcely more than a few months old; wrapped in a blanket and being held by her mother, whose eyes were filled with joyous tears. Yet it wasn't taken in a hospital, they were in front of a dismal grey building. It looked as if it could've been an orphanage. Upon studying the other photographs, River realized that Parker bore no resemblance whatsoever to her parents.

"Mother started taking me to a psychiatrist when I was four. That's when I found the diary and started the drawings. The dreams have always happened, but that's when I started documenting them. After that I told her I made these up, they were just stories. God, you should've seen the psychiatrist's office. She would drop me off, leave me alone with him for two hours."

"What happened? Did he hurt you?"

"I honestly can't remember it all, that's the _best_ part." Parker said with an exhausted, sarcastic sigh. "All I know is that he scared me. I didn't like it. I had to be strapped to a chair; restrained because I kept trying to run. I remember that. Nobody ever believed me when I said what happened, and his advice was that I be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. So I told her I made everything up. Started writing things down."

"At four years old?"

"I've always been 'gifted', or 'advanced', or 'special'. I'm not only book smart they say, I'm wise. I seem far older than I am."

"Well I wasn't going to say anything, but you certainly do not talk like a 14 year old."

"When mother died, that's how they all comforted me. Said I was a smart girl, had a future as a writer."

"Oh... I'm so sorry... What happened?"

"Dad brought work home. He works for Torchwood. Mom never knew, she just knew he was part of the 'special ops'."

"Torchwood?"

"You've never heard of them? It's all kept very quiet, but I'm sure the Doctor must have told you."

"Apparently not."

"Well... I suppose you could say they're like UNIT. But more illegal? When there's alien stuff on Earth they find it and deal with the fallout. In Cardiff there's the rift, and here... We have a different type of rift. It's down town, in the historical district. We used to take school trips all the time, but it had to be closed off. It's more active, and definitely more sporadic. It isn't confined to a pattern, there's no standard or normal. It's positive and negative, giving and taking in almost equal amounts. This entire area... Things just... Happen. Like what killed my mother. Father's theory is that there is another small but extremely active rift here, near the house, but they just can't find it.

"One day, when I was about five, mother heard a noise in the garage. She told me to stay in my room, so I did. She went to check, and nothing happened. There was just this electrical buzzing. And then I heard it. The most terrifying sound I've ever heard." Parker dropped off. She didn't look like she was going to cry, just extremely thoughtful. River could see that this was a hard memory to deal with. It was comparable to the hell that River had been through. "It was her screaming. Bloodcurdling. And it just kept going. I had to go check on her, and I found the door leading in from the kitchen slightly open. Then the screaming stopped. I just sat there. I was frozen. She was dead. Somehow there was a fully functional CyberConversion Unit, unnoticed, just sitting in our garage. Father said there must have been a perception filter.

"It was terrible. There was a metal bar through her head... a cylinder drilled through her left eye... I'm sorry, I can't."

"I understand. You clearly know all about my past. I understand completely." And River wasn't exaggerating. Yes she was stolen from her parents at birth, but she had still grown up with them. She had been trained to murder her husband, but he had not actually died. All of that was miniscule compared to watching your mum being murdered. And yet the girl continued.

"I ran and hid in the pantry. I heard them saying that mother was 'not compatible' and that the 'upgrade had failed'. They needed a life form with higher intellect. Oh God, I thought they were going to find me. It must have been hours before dad and his team arrived. When they got here, I didn't hear them come in. That's how stealthy they were. All I heard were heavy footsteps coming towards the closet. I swear, I thought my heart was going to explode. Thank the Time Lord, my dad just wears combat boots. He found me hiding there while the mess in the garage was cleaned up, I was sobbing and shaking like a leaf in a hurricane."

"You poor thing." River thought she might actually cry. She gave Parker a hug; a long, meaningful, and comforting embrace.

"She might not have been my biological mother, but I loved her... So much."

"You were adopted?"

"Mm hm." Parker nodded. "Father told me that they chose me out of all the others because they could tell I was special. I've always wondered about that..."

"I can hardly say they were wrong. Do you know why you were put up for adoption?"

"My biological parents didn't exactly give me up... I was found in the middle of nowhere."

"And where exactly is... nowhere?"

"Roadside baby on a long stretch of highway. I was abandoned there. A man doing community service picking up trash found me. It was all over the news."

Parker's faced dropped. It seemed to be causing her great pain to be going through these memories. A silence fell between them.

They sat quietly for a moment.


	8. A Kiss and a Hug

Being a quiet introvert for her entire unique life, Parker was prone to awkward silences. Although the quiet that had settled between her and the woman she knew so much about (yet had only just met) wasn't a bad one, it wasn't a good one either. Parker decided she didn't like it, she decided to end it.

"There's... Something... In here."

"Something?"

"I can't explain it. There's never any physical thing, but I hear things and feel things."

"What kind of things? I'm sorry Parker, you'll have to be a bit more specific."

"But that's the thing! I can't be! You already know what most of the 'things' are, my ceiling and the clocks and the quiet and the lights. Something's not right, and yet everything's normal." Parker struggled to explain. River thought for a moment, trying to come up with a comparison to make it easier to understand.

"You mean like when you know who committed a crime and have more than enough evidence, yet none at all? It's convincing enough by itself, but when you put it into the situation, nothing's actually out of place?"

"That's exactly it."

"Well I must say, that's quite the difficult problem. Do you want to show the Doctor? That seems like his kind of monster."

"Oh! That's the whole reason I came up here!" Parker suddenly remembered. She lunged for the bright, red, felted hat that was sitting on her desk, but she froze. Her hand stopped mere centimeters from the fez.

Something was very wrong. Something about the room was changing. Parker had sensed it beforehand; she was used to it, but River now noticed it too.

It felt frozen. Not the room, but her. It was almost electric, like an icy current coursing through her heart. Her breath caught in her chest. The room seemed to be closing in on her.

There was a loud ticking, and a furious whispering; like a crowd of people was huddled in a corner of the room. Shadows played at the edge of her vision, dark figures darting about frantically. She began hyperventilating involuntarily, her lungs aching.

The clocks.

The hands were spinning, the digital ones all read 00:00. Parker looked frozen as well, yet she had somehow moved from her position near the desk. She was leaning against the wall, with a pained yet calm look on her face. The two were indeed experiencing a painful sensation, River felt as if her blood was beginning to boil. Parker just seemed... Used to it.

There were a few quick knocks on the door, which quickly evolved into a rapid pounding. The doorknob rattled. River could faintly make out the sound of the Doctor's sonic from the whispers. Funny, She hadn't remember anyone locking the door.

It was black. Everything. The room had gone from dim to not there at all. Well, it was still there, but she couldn't see it. River imagined it was like being blind. She couldn't see anything. It was beyond the room being dark. She could no longer see.

"River." Someone was saying. "River..."

She jolted back to normality. She keeled over, landing on the floor. Her head hung between her knees; she was gasping. The Doctor was kneeling in front of her. He took hold of her face, bringing it up to look at her. His wife looked terrified. The Doctor sighed, squeezing his eyes shut. He leaned forward, their foreheads touching. She was shaking. He leaned back. She was crying silently. He planted a tender kiss on her damp cheek, his lips barely grazing her skin.

The room was truly dark now. Not in the sense that the lights had been turned off; they were all still on and emitting a faint glow. It was dark in the sense of daylight. River saw outside, and what she saw was that the sky had turned pitch black. She turned to see the doorway littered with splintered wood. One look, and the Doctor gave her that awkward "Well, what else was I supposed to do?" look.

There was a pounding of feet as someone came running up the stairs. River was expecting one of her parents. Instead entered a tall man, wearing a headset and combat boots. He took a brief look around the room, setting his sights on Parker. River hadn't looked at anything but the Doctor and the windows since coming out of the blackness, she hadn't noticed that Parker had condensed herself into a small, trembling ball. When cowering and shaking, the girl lost the mature look that could be found when you looked into her eyes. Parker's eyes now read one thing, and one thing alone: fear. She looked younger, and innocent, and utterly terrified. The man ran to her, scooping her into a warm embrace. A single tear could be seen creeping slowly down her chin. Her eyes shut, and she buried her face in the fabric of his jacket.

"Daddy." She said softly. Her father was home.


End file.
